By Cnaan Lidor
Five Jewish couples got married earlier this month at a synagogue in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, in what a local rabbi said was Ukrainian Jewry’s largest group wedding ceremony in years.
The newlyweds comprised three older couples who had already been married for many years through a civil union, but had never had a Jewish wedding, said Rabbi Ariel Markovitch, director of the Beit Menachem JCC, where the weddings took place.
The remaining two couples were younger community members who had planned to have a Jewish wedding but whose plans were delayed following the February, 2022, invasion of Russia into Ukraine, which triggered an ongoing war.
The oldest groom, 92-year-old Natan Medvedev, joked before the chuppah that he “wasn’t sure whether he’s ready to commit to married life just yet,” Markovitch said.
Natan and Rima Medvedev have been married for more than 60 years.
The weddings took place at Beit Menachem just after Lag b’Omer. Traditonally, Jews do not marry in the period between the second night of Passover and Lag b’Omer, which this year fell on May 5.
One of the elderly couples kept the shards of broken glass, which the groom broke under the chuppah, said Ariel Markovitch, whose father, Jonathan, is the chief rabbi of Kiev.
“The couple asked in advance not to throw away the broken glass so they’d have a souvenir,” Ariel Markovitch recalled.
The other elderly couples were Alexander and Inna Zaitzev and Michael and Tamara Gorni.
The elderly grooms were a bit concerned ahead of breaking the glass by stomping on it, a custom which signifies mourning over the Jewish Temple’s destruction.
“The elderly gentlemen weren’t sure whether they had the force to smash it. We agreed they’d take the bride’s hand when they stomped, as a symbol of their bond but, frankly, also for balance,” the rabbi said.
Serving as bridesmaids and best men were young Jews planning to get married next year, he said.
The dozens of people attending the ceremony “were very aware of how special the event is, and many toasted for peace, expressing the wish that the weddings would help bring it about,” he said.
Jewish religious weddings were rare in Ukraine when it still belonged to the Soviet Union. Kiev had about 100,000 Jews when the war broke out in 2022, Markovitch said. Currently, the Beit Menachem JCC is in contact with just a few thousand Jews living here.
Millions of non-Jewish Ukrainians left the country following the outbreak of war in 2022 and many Ukrainian Jews also did so.
However, many Jews from the east of Ukraine, which has come under very frequent attacks by Russia, have moved to Kiev, strengthening Jewish life in the capital despite the departure of many thousands of former members, Markovitch said.